It was no secret that I was more than ready for #BabyWigs (now #BiggyWigs) to arrive. After being told for many weeks that I wouldn't make it to 40 weeks, my patience was at the breaking point come D-Day, May 14th. That morning I had my 40 week appointment. I hadn't slept well due to intermittent contractions and the thought that I would be waking up on my due date. To say I was a bit disappointed would be an understatement. I was more than ready to meet my baby!
My doctor is amazing. Just the absolute best. She was shocked I was in her office still pregnant so she offered to strip my membranes to help get things moving.
Oh boy, did they.
I left her office and had contractions every five to seven minutes until I left work at 3 PM.
They weren't unbearable, but I didn't have high hopes that they were going to progress. In the weeks previous, my contractions would always dissipate by bedtime. Thinking they wouldn't turn into anything, I picked up #wiggydiggy from school and we took the car to the car wash. Lil man LOVED the special treat and I had to focus on breathing through contractions. I was making progress!
Justin was golfing in a charity tournament across town. We had discussed how I would let him know it was 'go time' that morning but I just couldn't bring myself to send him the '911 Labor' text. Instead he ended up texting me about 4 PM to let me know they were on the last hole. I let him know I had been having contractions all day and that he needed to come home as soon as he was done. As fate would have it, I had a BIG contraction right around 5. I sent Justin a text saying - COME HOME ASAP. 2 minutes later he called and said he got the text just as he was getting into his car! All while this was going on, I was making sure #wiggdiggy had dinner, was occupied playing outside and prepping for my Mother in Law's arrival. She would stay with #wiggydiggy while we were at the hospital.
Both she and Justin arrived home at the same time. I sent Justin to take a quick shower and I did the MOST logical thing and loaded the dishwasher, wiped all the counters down, and sorted the dirty clothes.
Once Justin was showered and ready we gave #wiggydiggy lots and lots of hugs and kisses and started to leave. While in the garage I heard him through the door scream and cry to give his Mama one more kiss. I went back and held my baby for the last time. A few more kisses and he was ok to go play with his Nana.
The entire drive to the hospital I only had one contraction. I felt like the 'Boy Who Cried Wolf'. I even asked Justin to turn around and go home - it had to be false labor. He suggested we at least get checked out. I was at 3cm that morning at my drs appointment, so surely I had made more progress. After admitting paperwork, we went to triage and progress had been made...but barely - I was at 4 cm. Contractions were also coming every 3 minutes and getting stronger. We stayed in triage for an hour for monitoring when the nurse came back and said we were being admitted, but we could walk around the halls until my room was ready. Walking made the pain 10 times worse.
(Wasn't until the following morning we figured out why)
Once we got in our room I was begging for an epidural. Contractions were intensifying and I was barely getting a break between them. According to the nurse I was 8 cm.
WHAT?!
The silver lining to arriving at the hospital after business hours is that labs and ordering an epidural go super fast. Shortly after the epidural was administered (which I never felt a thing. God bless.) my doctor arrived. She disagreed with the nurse and said I was only 5 cm.
Major disappointment.
It was about 9 PM and everyone guessed baby would be here by midnight. So we took the opportunity of me being pain free to grab some shut eye. Unfortunately I never progressed through the night. My contractions stayed intense and coming every two minutes. Thanks to my epidural I slept most of the night. But by 5:30AM, the nurses and my doctor were baffled by my lack of dilation with the contractions I was having.
So they broke my water.
SURPRISE!!
To spare you the gory details - the average woman has 1 quart of amniotic fluid. My doctor estimated I had closer to 3 quarts. My stomach visibly got smaller (and holy moly did it feel better!) and I continued to gush fluid with each contraction. I also progressed steadily at that point.
6 AM water broke
630 AM - 6 cm
715 AM - 7 cm
740 AM - 8 cm
830 AM - 10 cm
11 minutes of pushing and here HE was!
A BOY!
I wish I had taken a photo of Justin's face when he saw our baby. Pure joy.
After he was born my doctor said she wished she had broken my water the night before. Hindsight is 20/20. I never had any signs of excess amniotic fluid. I was measuring right on track and had even gained the same amount of weight that I did with #wiggydiggy. The excess fluid did explain why my contractions got worse when I was walking (gravity brought baby down). My doctor also noticed my placenta felt heavy. We all looked at that amazing organ and then the nurse took it to be weighed. 2 pounds!! The average placenta is 1 1/2 pounds! No wonder I felt like an over stretched balloon!!
(also, special note here - no tears! I still have no clue how that happened)
#BiggyWigs latched right on and nursed for just over 2 hours.
Then we got our 3rd shock of the day.
He weighed 9 pounds 4 oz.
Needless to say, my stomach felt amazing after giving birth!
